Online Publications Best Picks for September

The month of September saw a global economic meltdown spread panic all around the world. While economists and politicians clamoured to give their opinions on what went wrong, personal development experts showed readers how to make sense amidst the chaos and personal upheavals, and find hope in the process.
Also in this edition, we find the latest research on intellect, and how experience and perseverance matter more to success than sheer genius.

Our Top Five Picks for the Month

Harvard Business Review

How to Stay Sane When the Economy Goes Crazy
Many people feel powerless as economic doom grips the world. While it is easy to allow our natural “flight or fight” instincts to take over, it is imperative that we take control of our minds and emotions to re-chart our course in life.

The author, having suffered personal loss recently, advises readers to take time to examine how they react to the economic crisis. With self-awareness comes insight, which helps bring our frantic emotions under control. She also reminds readers that humans are beings wired for hope. Hence, humans are entirely capable of accepting the current crisis, while finding a good reason to see beyond and move forward with their lives.

The Huffington Post

5 Steps to Managing Meltdown Mania
While some feel powerless in solving the economic situation, there are those who are looking to escape the madness. Escapist temptations aside, there is a need to control external distractions and come to peace with ourselves, if we are to survive these times. Here is how to do it:

1) Stop. Take time away from the panic and stress by choosing to have some time to yourself. Relax and calm down.

2) Close your eyes and pay attention to your breath. Control your breathing with slow and easy breaths. Use this time to refocus.

3) Look. Enjoy the feeling of ease you have just experienced. See things from a different perspective.

4) Choose. Understand your power of choice over all that is happening around you. See your life as if you were living in your last moments.

5) Do it. Consider how you would act if you were living your last moments, and examine your most deeply held values. Take the courage to act.

CNN

How to Avoid a Major Meltdown at Work
Personal “meltdowns” at work are becoming increasingly commonplace. These outward displays of distress can happen even in places where the general office environment is seen as positive and supportive. Meltdowns occur when organisational and personal expectations are out of balance with each other, resulting in overwhelming stress.

Here are important ways to prevent one.

1) Encourage communication at work. Ensure channels to discuss sources of stress and challenges. Involve superiors or even upper management.

2) Assess your workload. Inform superiors if it gets unreasonable. Learn to delegate work whenever possible.

3) Take a break. Schedule to leave your desk a few times a day to disengage from work, and use the time to rest.

4) Offer a helping hand. Be a friend to fellow colleagues. Managers should look for ways to assist staff with company welfare policies where applicable.

Scientific American

High-Aptitude Minds: The Neurological Roots of Genius

Recent studies into the minds of the late Professor Albert Einstein and child prodigies have found the neural basis for intelligence. Most intellectual individuals have enlarged areas of the brain (in Einstein’s case, the parietal lobe), which are critical for visual and mathematical thinking. More intelligent people have optimal brain processes: their brains devote less energy for simple problems, but are able to scale their energies upward to solve novel tasks.

However, scientists also highlighted how people commonly overstate intelligence over industriousness and perseverance. They pointed out that these two traits account for success more consistently than mere intelligence.

ABC News

You’ve Got Mail, Again: Tips for E-Mail Overload
According to Basex, a business and technology research firm, a typical worker receives 200 emails a day (Information Overload: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us, 2007). Email has quickly grown to be one of the top causes of distraction and time wasting in the office. Mismanaging email has shown to reduce the ability to focus and produce quality work, costing the US economy $650 billion for all the work hours lost to email distraction. Poor email management has also been linked to poor relationships both at work and at home.

The article lists ways to gain control over email chaos, gleaning advice from the best of contemporary productivity systems.

1) Don’t check e-mail first thing in the morning. Prioritise more important tasks to be completed before looking at email.
2) Check email in batches, rather than fluidly throughout the day.

3) Minimise exchanges. Avoid back-and-forth replying by being decisive with replies.

4) Unsubscribe to lists or newsletters you don’t read.

5) Stop sending repetitive email. Be concise and economical with words and replies.

6) Take it to zero. Delete all messages and inform all your contacts of what you did, and ask them to resend only the important messages.

7) Set precedents from above. If you are a leader in an organisation, set an example by not replying to emails immediately and avoid sending email at unusual hours.

8) Use other forms of communication.

Top Ten Online Publications In September 2008

ABC News

You’ve Got Mail, Again: Tips for E-Mail Overload

CNN

How to Avoid a Major Meltdown at Work

Harvard Business Review

How to Stay Sane When the Economy Goes Crazy

The Huffington Post

How to Avoid a Major Meltdown at Work

Scientific American

High-Aptitude Minds: The Neurological Roots of Genius

Time Magazine

What Happens When We Die?

The Huffington Post

How To Get Through The Recession With Less Depression

SelfGrowth.com

Got Autodidactic?

Success Magazine

Back to the Basics…How Do You Define Success?

If you enjoyed the article "Managing Meltdowns and the Truth about Genius " - why don't you read more about the Whakate Way.